Both Ways Bob Back Again

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez had a tough couple of days last week in the wake of his BeauprezGate scandal into negative ads running against Democrat Bill Ritter. Things seemed to get a little better over the weekend with the Beauprez spin that an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent who gave the campaign the information for the negative ads was a whistle-blowing hero.

Well, we’re back to bad-news Beauprez. As the Rocky Mountain News reports, “Both Ways Bob” is back to earning his nickname…

GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez voted in Congress to strengthen protections against abuse of a national crime database for non-law enforcement purposes.

But last week, Beauprez portrayed an “informant” who gave his campaign information – which critics say came from that database – as a heroic whistleblower.

Beauprez used the information in a TV ad to attack his Democratic rival, former Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter, over Ritter’s plea-bargaining with immigrants charged with crimes.

In addition, The Denver Post reported last week that Beauprez said until the controversy over his ad erupted, he was unaware of the existence of the database, the National Crime Information Center, which is better known by its initials.

But the Ritter campaign pointed out Sunday that the NCIC has figured into key provisions of legislation Beauprez has either co-sponsored or supported in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Ritter’s campaign blasted Beauprez. “He’s either not being completely truthful, or he’s suffering from politically expedient amnesia,” said Ritter’s spokesman, Evan Dreyer. “We find this somewhat less than honest.”

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The Colorado Independent has been amplifying the voices of vulnerable Coloradans and holding public officials to account since 2013. Starting in the fall of 2020, we will be teaming up with the Colorado Press Association and Colorado Media Project as part of COLab, an incubator for journalists to collaborate at a time when news resources are scarce. Our primary role will be to work one-on-one with journalists in newsrooms statewide to help them report challenging stories they couldn’t cover alone.

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OUR MISSION

The Colorado Independent has been amplifying the voices of vulnerable Coloradans and holding public officials to account since 2013. Starting in the fall of 2020, we will be teaming up with the Colorado Press Association and Colorado Media Project as part of COLab, an incubator for journalists to collaborate at a time when news resources are scarce. Our primary role will be to work one-on-one with journalists in newsrooms statewide to help them report challenging stories they couldn’t cover alone.